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Professor Doctor T. Eger (Hamburg). "Persia and the Persian Question". Weimar. 1910. ("German Eastern Library". Published by Ernst Jeckel, XIV) (p. 179).

NB: This book is better than the previous one. A very good book, thorough, clear, precise exposition, frequent citation of documents. An excellent map of Persia, zones of influence of Russia and England.

The author, of course, is an imperialist scoundrel.

Reference to a book that appeared while this was being printed—"Persia and the European War" by one "Persian patriot." Price? Place of publication?)

Kerr in various places on "Persia." London 1892. 2 volumes.

The book begins with a quotation from "The Testament of Peter the Great," which Napoleon I "dictated in the form of theses, when in 1812 he needed to create the necessary mood for his campaign against Russia" (p. 9).

1722—3: Peter the Great conquered Derbent, Baku, Rasht and a large part of Gilan (a province of Persia in the northwest, near the Caspian Sea).

1735 — Gilan, Derbent, Baku are returned to Persia.

A good example!!

1802 — Georgia becomes a Russian province.

1800 — Napoleon I with Paul I plans an attack on India.

1807 — Military mission of Napoleon I to Persia (70 officers, etc. with General Gardanne).

1808 — England sends a special envoy to Persia; it helps Persia in its war against Russia.

1813 — Persia is defeated in war with Russia. Peace at Gulistan. Persia cedes Derbent, Baku, etc., etc. Obligated not to maintain warships on the Caspian Sea.

1814 — Treaty of England with Persia: "defensive and offensive alliance" (13)...

1825 — War of Persia with Russia (which just as much drew Persia into war as England drew the Boers in 1899). England hoodwinked Persia: this does not conform to our treaty!!

1828 — Persia is defeated in war with Russia. Peace at Turkmanchai. (Cedes Nakhichevan, Erivan, etc.); 3½ million pounds sterling in military indemnification.

1890 — England (one English company) obtains a concession for tobacco monopoly for 50 years for 300,000 marks of net profit.

A company with a capital of 13 million marks obtained net profit, after all deductions, of 7½ million, i.e. over 50% (p. 17).

Popular unrest over this, etc. ("several hundred dead"!! p. 17) — in 1892 the concession was purchased by the Persian government for 10 million marks (!!). These 10 million were borrowed from England at 6%!!!

August 5, 1906. The Shah of Persia promises the people a constitution and parliament.

1909. At the insistence of England, the Russian representative was removed from Persia, Hartwig (von Hartwig), who in the most unconscionable manner incited intrigues, etc. (he was transferred to Belgrade, where he was "one of the principal instigators of the murder of the Archduke-Crown Prince and his spouse," p. 21).

June 23, 1908. State coup in Persia. The Majlis is dispersed with the help of Liakhov.

May 31 — June 13, 1908 — Letter of Liakhov to the general staff of the Caucasian military district (full text) — from Browne: "The Persian Revolution" 1905/9. Cambridge, 1910, p. 222. The most blatant plan for counter-revolution in Persia, bribery, pogroms, etc. ((p. 26—28 in Eger)).

NB

November 29, 1911 — Ultimatum (2nd) from Russia (to Persia): removal of Morgan Shuster, etc.

Russia steadily advances in Azerbaijan. (They began a railroad from Julfa to Tabriz).

A series of quotations from Browne about the most shameless plunder and violence of the Cossacks... (38 ff.) ... The Cossacks hanged Mohammedan priests (41), etc.!!

Letter from a Frenchman about the same ("Siècle," January 4, 1940) — p. 39.

To preserve order, Swedish gendarmes were called in... (42)

1914 — The Russians resettle Russian peasants in Azerbaijan..

In Persia there is neither "modern bureaucracy" nor "money" (49). Tax collection is farmed out. He cites Morgan Shuster: "The Strangling of Persia" 1912. ((Morgan at a session of the council of ministers exposed one minister for taking 83,000 tomans == 332,000 marks. Response: I didn't know about it, my private secretary did it!))

Belgian customs officials do the same (de Naus bought himself a castle with money "earned" in Persia (53)).

Persia = 1,645,000 sq. km.

Population — 4 million ("probably"). (10 million is exaggerated, p. 60).

1900/1 and 1912/3

Trade of Persia: export 60.2 million marks and 165.8
import 119.4 and 215.7
Total = 179.0 and 381.5

including Russia 62.7%
England 20.9%
83.0%

Imports of Persia from Germany
0.9 (million marks) and 4.8
Russia 45.5 — — — 131.8
British Empire 50.1 — — — 60.0
France 9.5 — — — 4.4
Turkey 5 — — — 9.5

Exports of Persia to Germany
0.07 — — — 7.8
Russia 35.8 — — — 120.0
British Empire 10.2 — — — 20.3
France 2.0 — — — 1.0
Turkey 7.2 — — — 15.4

Russia treats Persia as "its own" territory and does not permit free transit into Persia (67)..

NB!!

Way around this: sending of postal parcels.
(p. 68—9)
Total, including Germany
1904 — 10 — — — 1
1913 — 384,368 — 193,816

Russia tried to forbid the transportation of postal parcels from January 1, 1914, but all the powers opposed this (both England and France), and Russia had to give way (p. 70—71).

Russia concluded in 1902 a trade treaty with Persia, securing the market for "its" sugar, kerosene, etc. (71)...

Morgan Shuster says that this tariff is extremely harmful to Persia and advantageous to Russia (73) — (p. 270 of Shuster's book)...

Russia thus secures for itself a monopoly (74) in northern Persia, forcing the Persians to pay three times over for worthless goods!!

Struggle of influences in Persia: schools (Russian, French, German), hospitals (Russian, English, German), etc. German pharmacies (88), carpet trade society (89).

Conquest of Russia in Central Asia from 1861 to 1891 (estimates of 1911)

sq. km. inhabitants
(1869—1873) Transcaspian region 598,090 — 451,000
Bukhara — — 203,430 — 1,500,000
(1873) Khiva — — 67,430 — 800,000
Syr-Darya — — 489,240 — 1,874,000
(1875/6) Fergana — — 142,790 — 2,069,000
(1884) Merv and Samarkand — 87,560 — 1,184,000

Total 1,588,540 — 7,878,000

May 5, 1905: Speech of Lord Lamington in the House of Lords (p. 100 ff.) (against Russia: we need the Persian Gulf — it is the protection of the Indian frontier....)

NB!!

There, speech of Lord Ellenborough: .... "I would rather see Russia in Constantinople than a European arsenal on the shores of the Persian Gulf" (111).

Treaty of Russia and England, August 31, 1907 (text: p. 114 ff.) (the Russo-English partition treaty)...

Zone of Russia — — 790,000 sq. km.
Zone of England — — 355,000 sq. km.
(p. 119)...

Note of the English and Russian envoys to Persia (from February 18, 1912) — p. 124 ff. — — loans of 100,000 pounds at 7%!!! etc.)... Of course, the ministers, Russia's appointees, are in agreement!!

Potsdam Treaty, August 31, 1911 (text: 130 ff.). Germany recognizes the zone of Russia in Persia, Russia agrees not to oppose the Baghdad railway.

Speech of the Reich Chancellor in the Reichstag (December 10, 1910) about the same...

Russia divided with England, and then 
reinsured with Germany!!

For Germany the road to Persia and India is supposedly necessary — only for trade, of course, only!! — The Baghdad road ends in the gulf, that won't do, England can block it. It must end in Bandar Abbas (!!)

Oman is actually in the hands of England (p. 141).

Tabriz (220,000 inhabitants) trade (1906/7)

export — 23.4 million marks
import — 30.0 million marks

including Russia 34.0%
England 31
Austria 10
Turkey 4.2
France 3
Italy 5.8
Germany 4.5

Total = 97.3% (p. 151)

NB

(This does not correspond to Germany's trading strength).

Summer of 1914: treaty on the partition of Asia Minor railways.

France obtained 4,522 km. of railways in Turkey
Germany — — 4,909 km.

Afghanistan — mountainous country.

624,000 sq. km., 4,450,000 inhabitants. Nominally completely independent. In reality all foreign policy is in the hands of England; the emir is on her payroll. By the treaty of Russia with England (August 31, 1907) England recognized freedom of trade in Afghanistan, Russia recognized that Afghanistan is "outside the sphere of its influence."

The English do not permit foreigners even to enter Afghanistan (!! p. 154).

The Afghans militarily "are by no means adversaries to be underestimated" (157).

England is extremely cautious with them:

"Here is displayed the wisdom of the policy of 'velvet gloves' on the part of England; for more carefully, more cautiously than they have treated him (the Afghan emir), the English cannot really treat anyone" (158).

Turkestan ( = Central Asia). Regions: Ural, Turgai, Akmola, Semipalatinsk, Fergana, Samarkand, Semirechensk, Syr-Darya, Transcaspian (p. 161)

— 3,488,530 sq. km. and 10,957,400
+ Khiva and Bukhara

Total = 3,760,000 sq. km. 13¾ million inhabitants

The population is almost exclusively Mohammedan.

NB

"A special mission from these countries, especially from the Kirghiz region, is currently making a round trip to the courts of the four Allied powers and neutral states in order to present their complaints about Russian oppression and to demand liberation from the Russian yoke and the restoration of their former states" (162).

On Turkestan, see the "memorandum" (Krivoshein?), translated into German, and "Russian Turkestan," a report by the Belgian consul ("Consular Collection of Belgium," Brussels, vol. 160, 1912).

Agreement of Russia with England on Tibet (also 1907) — both sides recognize the sovereign rights of China (text, p. 169), territorial integrity of Tibet, etc., etc. (they transfer the struggle for Tibet to the "court" in Beijing)...

"The question of the Baghdad Railway... becomes the Persian Question" (173)...

Baluchistan. Nominally independent. England has a railway and 200 yards on both sides "British territory" ("lease"!!!). The whole country is "in the closest friendship and alliance with England," (the country) "of course, has placed all its foreign policy entirely in its (England's) hands, but in other respects is just as independent a native state as Afghanistan or Nepal" (174—5).

Conclusion of the author:

"In contrast to this" (in contrast to the bad conduct of England and Russia), "Germany's only wish can be not to position itself as a third power between two brothers—Russia and England, in order not to be attacked by both at once; but Germany's goal, as in all similar cases (Turkey, Morocco), can only be a strong, independent Persia with equal rights for all—at best with some advantages for Germany" (176)....

To Germany
(p. 179)

July 17, 1914: The British House of Commons passed (254 votes to 18) the government's proposal to purchase shares of the "Anglo-Persian Oil Company" (rich oil sources on the Karun River). The author compares this to the purchase of Suez shares.

P. 158—9: Testament of the old Afghan emir (Abd-ur-Rahman) — one should strive for a union of Persia, Turkey, and Afghanistan to protect the entire Mohammedan world against Russia...

German imports into Turkey Turkish exports to Germany
1882 — 5.9 — — — 1.8 million marks
1887 — 12 — — — 3.
1891 — 37 — — — 13.6
1900 — 34.4 — — — 30.3
1912 — 98.4 — — — 74.* (p. 179)

Ha-ha!!!
"only"
III